My next door neighbour have lights that charge from solar power in the day and then stay on all night to light up certain areas of the garden. It does look very good, in fact once they do a bit more work to the garden I think it will look spectacular.
I was wondering though, does this mess up nocturnal animals body clocks? They obviously aren't expecting it to be light at that time, so does is discourage the wildlife from visiting?
Perhaps I'm thinking too much about it!
Hi Rhiana good topic ,i have quite a few solar lights but they are the twinkling type not bright light up the garden type.
They look lovely as it gets dark but are not bright enough to light things up.
I would think some of the very bright ones could confuse wildlife
Oh what has happened to those wonderful dark nights when one could enjoy the spectacle of a star-filled sky!!!!!!
I'm lucky to live in one of the least light polluted places in Europe. After dark on clear nights they are all we need.
I have spent countless nights sleeping out under the stars mountaineering & Canoeing. Not only can you see stars, planes, satellites. shooting stars but also birds and other wildlife.
I've also seen the Northern Lights many times in the UK, even once here in SW Ireland.
There is some evidence that light pollution does alter wildlife behaviour. Many turtles for example are mislead when returning to their nesting beaches by lights of coastal buildings. Birds on migration often fly into strong lights such as lighthouses, indeed several very rare birds have been found under them dead. The whole behaviour of moths and other night flying insects have been noted to alter due to the proximity to street lights. This in turn effects the behaviour of bats which hunt them. Daylight singing song birds now regularly sing at night in places with strong street and other domestic lighting.
At the risk of being called a spoil-sport, isn't this just extra pollution?
It must get confusing for wildlife if there is lots of light. If it is a few of the smaller lights, I don't think there would be much of a problem though.
Thanks for the responses! ANd Wild Canon I completely agree, there is nothing better than perfect darkness to look at the stars with. When you go somehwere really dark and can see the milky way it really is amazing.
I can recommend Gwennap Head, Porthgwarra in Cornwall for pure dark skies. I remember in July 2006 i was up there catching Storm Petrels. The floor was covered in Fireflies and the sky with stars. We saw at least 8 shooting stars, satellites and the space station orbiting too.